Review: Thompson Hotel Chicago

This is the only Thompson I've stayed in and it was very memorable. I totally agree with everything you said about it and the location is good. We were given a room that looked identical to yours but it had some water damage in the walls. Wasn't a big deal, but I brought it up to them since I thought they should know about it (from a maintenance standpoint). They ended up upgrading us and comped the rest all of our F&B for our 2 day stay due to the "inconvenience" of moving rooms. I didn't ask or expect anything and the water damage wasn't even that bad/noticeable. It's the kind of gesture that makes you remember a property, and it's not like it's that big a deal to them.

Sad, many hotels offer good opportunity towards highest elite status that I am interested in, however, being half way through it, I am already wondering what is that for with such kind of limited services across the board. I would love to stay back at some hostel which I see myself really belongs to. Lol

Indoor dining has been open in Chicago for quite a while (with recently increased capacity based on low caseload) and the state of Illinois has even more permissive guidelines, so there's no "state mandate" that requires restaurants to be closed. Maybe it's a staffing challenge or maybe it's laziness, but the least they can do is have some useful alternatives.

What's with all the ashtrays in the lobby? Can you smoke in there?

For the reference, I've stayed at another Thompson during the pandemic which offered codes for Globalist's breakfast by Butler. I was quite impressed at the time to still receive the breakfast benefit even via a third party. Now it seems it's the property going above and beyond instead of Thompson's standard.

Based on my experience and recent flyertalk data points, the Thompson chicago seems to be the ugly duckling of Thompson’s in terms of doing the bare minimum for globalists.

I don’t know if this is their reaction to sub $200 Prive rates, or if they’re just generally doing the bare minimum all the time

Charging you more and giving you less. Hyatt’s new motto, and not just them as you have pointed out. I’m feeling like maybe it time to be a free agent give up the status and the credit card as it doesn’t seem worth it. The take home for me is that there is absolutely no reason to book using Hyatt Privé until things are back to normal. Thanks these last couple of Hyatt reviews have been very eye opening. Behave Hyatt CFMX booked on points stayed before so going in with no delusions.

@Peter, you should have prefaced your comment with "Back in the day....". Unfortunately almost everything corporate, not just travel, is being crapified under the guise of COVID.

I can sorta see hotel elite status for road warriors (an endangered species), but for leisure, I'm not so sure. Of course we'd never make the spend required for hotel elite status .

Lucky, hope you get your vaccination soon. But with the variants, use common sense.

You were utterly ripped off. Is there any recourse when Hyatt Privé benefits are not honored at the hotel?

Honesty, the finishes in the room look like a courtyard or hilton garden inn. Not very aspirational to me

This is definitely not worst of the Thompsons. I stayed at the Thompson Gild Hall in Lower Manhattan a couple of weeks ago and your experience feels luxurious by comparison. Too many service issues to even get into (worst one was checking in at 5p, being told that the room would be ready soon and that we should wait... only to wait an hour in the lobby being told repeatedly “almost ready”). The hotel itself is a relic with a few minor tweaks as a cursory attempt to “Thompson”-ize it. Like you, I’ve come to love the brand, but it definitely feels like like they are not consistent across all of the hotels.

@Lucky can you share when you stayed at this property? I have an upcoming stay mother's day weekend in May and I'm hoping the hotel will up its game by then.

@lucky how come you didn't push back on the suite upgrade? I called out a similar situation at centric arlington and received 15K pts from WOH rep and an upgrade the next day.

@Ben please consider using up your daily credit next time and even if you don’t want to eat that “junk food,” there are many homeless or less fortunate folks who would love it.

I see Clif Bars and Sahale snacks, which while not the healthiest, aren’t terrible, anyways. Bur whenever I am faced with a situation like this, I spend it on whatever it available and donate it to any less fortunate person, I’m sure many of whom where within walking distance of that hotel. Thank you.

The presentation of the omelette is an insult to the poor chef. They can't afford to work out a safe system to serve on chinaware? Sheesh.

When it first opened, and pre Hyatt, this Thompson was one of my favorite hotels in Chicago. On recent stays I have been disappointed and think it needs a refresh. But I guess the point category is telling.

I am a Globalist and had a terrible stay there late last year. At that time the restaurant was open but only starting at 11. I asked if I could take a late breakfast from the brunch menu at 11 and they told me no. I never got the 500 points for lack of breakfast and they would not extend the 4 PM checkout even though there was literally nobody there.

Lucky, I am curious for your take on reduced Covid services. I have traveled a decent amount but my current stay is the first where they have flat refused to do housekeeping. Others have had it on request only or with minimal changes. This one particularly ticked me off because it was not really disclosed. If I wanted an Airbnb like level of service I would not have stayed at a hotel is my thinking. What have you seen and where would you draw the line?

Fwiw person story is from Texas so it’s not a government regulation issue, but have stayed now in both very red and very blue places and this is the first. To me it’s clearly largely a cost thing more than a covid thing at this point.

I stayed at that hotel several times before the pandemic and was treated really well as a globalist. Suite upgrades (to a two level suite one time), breakfast was always unlimited and always free, 4pm check out offered, etc, etc. I hope they go back to normal soon

Upstater - I really hope your comment about “the variants” is a joke. Open your eyes and realize the pandemic is over.

On the other hand... you can stay locked inside and we won’t miss you. Last year has been wonderful year of travel for those of you who made the decision to not waste 1 year of precious life.

Just arrived at our 1st Thompson in Zihqutenao Mexico - 3 pools, 2 restaurants, beachside service under a palm tree at 1/3 Chicago price. So who is the travel expert now?

"I wasn’t looking to drink unnecessarily,"

Ummm....when is drinking "necessary"??....:)

We stayed there over this past weekend - an overnight stay to sleep and rest sinde we have a 2 and 3 year old and am due a baby in 4 weeks time. We haven't had a night away or a lie in together in 3 years and it's likely going to be 3 more! Was very happy with hotel amenities, restaurant (just opened), room size, decor etc but the problem is the air con when it has to kick on to get to the same set temp every 30-45 mins or so is sooop noisy it let waking me up from 12 to 3am - it was so bad and even though it was the hotter night of the year in Chicago (we move only 1.7 Mike's away!) I had to turn it off to have any hope of a few hours sold sleep. So long story short, I had the worst night sleep in a while as I was either woken by the extremely loud aircon or I was too hot to sleep properly. Will stay there in a heart beat again as long as I don't need the air/heat to be on!

Thank you for the review. Very well done. The hotel makes me feel depressed especially that tight small gym, dark colors, and lack of fully honoring globalist benefits. How despairing to not be placed in an actual suite if one has globalist status. Canceling reservation. No thanks!

I am writing this from my room and I'm very disappointed in the services, amenities, and cleanliness/quality of the room.
Our room has lukewarm water in the shower and they sent an engineer out at 11pm to fix it.
The shower had hair on the handle of the removable head which wasn't mine.
The renovation was done poorly - there's peeling paint on the walls and mirror in both the bathroom and living room.
The floor lamp in the room is wobbly and feels like it's about to fall over at any second. All of the furniture is dinged up.
There was also only one robe in the room for two people and no extra blankets and no slippers (there's no carpet in my room and the floor is cold.)
The marathon is also this weekend and the hotel is doing nothing for runners even though there are many staying here. There are no breakfast items available early and they left a slightly insulting note in our room that they charge for late checkout Sunday (even though we're here for another day - Monday).
Really disappointed by this Hyatt property.